Who You Really Are

We all have insecurities. But those are NOT from God. The negative outlook we have on ourselves is not how God wants us to see ourselves. The enemy wants us to live upset, down and defeated because he wants us to constantly live wishing who we could be. God doesn't want that for us!!! He wants us to be what were called to be, what He has spoken over us! Do not let the lies of the enemy stick in your head. I have heard them and struggled them from such a young age, but the more I study and read who God says I am the more its engraved in my heart and I believe it and live it out. The enemy tries to blind us and distract us because when we know who we are, our identity, we have power in Christ. That scares him! I saw a teaching before that someone said they were nervous that they were about to speak in front of others and give a message. They were praying for God to settle their nerves. God revealed to them that God wasn't nervous about what was going to happen that night, the enemy was and the feelings of the enemy were coming on him as he was about to teach others about Jesus. Once he realized this it actually excited him that the enemy was nervous, because that meant God was going to show up BIG! He is always trying to steal joy and hope from us. Check out Ephesians 1. Were going to go through some of the promises of who we are, and in doing that destroy the work of the enemy in your life and mine!!!

Ephesians 1:3-14

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely give us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we are also chosen, having predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory.

This is good news guys!!! We are sinners and don't deserve this, but God gives us this awesome gift anyway and we ought to take that to heart! Stop living defeated and letting the devil win when Jesus died so we could have VICTORY!!! 

1- We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ!!! Jesus wants to bless you, even though you may have felt unworthy, you are worthy of God's love, because he sent his Son to die for you, he loves you that much!

2-Jesus chose us before the foundation of the world! He had you in mind. He loves you and put you on this earth for a reason. Lets find that purpose and BE it. I bet Jesus has awesome things for you to do for his kingdom, I think praying for those to be revealed so you can live those out is a good start :)

3-Holy and blameless in His sight. Who sees you like that? No one besides him! Not even the person you love most on this earth. They see your sin. God doesn't.

4-Adopted as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ. Wow. This blows me away even though we are imperfect he chooses to see us through Jesus, and adopts us as his own. If we lived like we were His sons and daughters it would be life changing.

5-We are redeemed and forgiven. The definition of redeemed means gain or regain possession of something in exchange for payment. Jesus payed the price for us. So our sin could no longer separate us from the love of God, but let us have a relationship with him in which we are forgive and FREE!!

6- Lavished in His grace. He bestowed generously the free and unmerited favor of God on us. We have the favor of God on us generously!! When we accept God we gain these awesome promises and I don't want you to miss them. I don't want us to live like the enemy has his grip on us, while we believe the lies he puts in our heads and hearts. Lets clear that crap out and just rest in the lavishing grace of God.

7-Predestined. When we have a relationship with Jesus, we are predestined to an eternity with him in heaven. This is an amazing promise!

8-Marked the promise of the Holy Spirit. When we come into this relationship we also receive the Holy Spirit which is an amazing gift. He is our counselor, and many other things. He is God-breathed, and living in us. The more we are in touch with this promise the more the power of God is in our lives.

I know its a lot to take in, especially in just a couple short verses, but soak it in. The enemy tells us the opposite of these things...example: You are cursed, you'll never experience blessing in your life....No one cares you exist, your life has not point or purpose....God sees all your faults and doesn't love you because your unloveable....How could you possible be a son or daughter of God look at you....There is no way God can forgive you, look what you've done....God's favor is only on those who are "strong Christians" not you....your destiny is hell...You can't feel the spirit of God because he chose not to come to you.... these are some lies you might be hearing, but the key word here is LIES. Erase those with the truth of GOD!!! Your BLESSED, CHOSEN, BLAMELESS, HIS CHILD, FORGIVEN, LAVISHED IN GRACE, PREDESTINED, MARKED IN HIM. HALLELUJAH!  

prayer:

Lord, bring to surface those lies the enemy planted in me so I can demolish them with your truth and promises! Bring light in the dark places and let me live in victory. Thank you for your gift that I did nothing to deserve, but you love me so much that you give it to me anyway. I love you!

AMEN!

praying scripture

I love it when God brings me to a verse and I find myself praying it! It is a powerful thing. A lot of times we don't know what to pray. You can look in the bible and actually find scripture that can help you pray.

Psalm 119 you can read the whole chapter as a prayer if you want. I read through it and underlined what spoke to me in a powerful way. Then I went back in my journal and wrote what I had underlined into a prayer

example:
 Direct me in the path of your command for there I find delight. Turn my heart toward your statues and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things...I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts..Your word O Lord is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations... save me for I am yours...Uphold me and I will be delivered...I am your servant, give me discernment that I may understand your statues.... May my lips overflow with praise, for you teach me your decrees, may my tongue sing of your word, for all your commands are righteous. May your hand be ready t help me, for I have chosen your precepts...Let me live that I may praise you!


You can also take verses that say us and plug in me to make it a personal prayer. This does not mean that you can change scripture. Scripture can have many applications, but only one interpretation. It is adjusting the us to me so that the application of the passage is personal to your prayer to God.

Hebrews 10:22-25
example:
 Let me draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having my heart sprinkled to cleanse me for a guilty conscience and having my body washed with a pure heart. Let me hold unswervingly to the hope I profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let me consider how I may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let me not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let me encourage on another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.


Just thought I would share a couple that I like to pray lately. Share verses that you like to pray!


prayer:
Lord, your word is so powerful. Show me scriptures that I can pray to you! Direct my reading in the bible to what I need to hear in that moment.
Amen.

Grafted in

I came upon this scripture in Romans that stood out to me lately and I've been really trying to see what Paul means in this scripture and how to apply it to my life. When I first read it I had never even heard of the word grafted. In reading this we need to know the definition and meaning behind it so we can understand the scripture. When I googled it, I found out that it's actually a really cool process. When you graft something (most of the time they use this process on fruit bearing trees) they cut off a bud from one tree, then in a different tree they cut a T like shape with flaps and insert the bud from the previous tree into it. They tie string around the bud after the close the flaps. Usually within 30 days you can take the twin off and the bud will start to grow off new roots. I never new that, and though that was pretty awesome!! So lets read the scripture now...

Romans 11:11-24

Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue to his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

Okay so that is a lot to read and grasp, but knowing the back round and definitions help us understand. What Paul is saying is that the Jews were cut off for their unbelief and lack of faith. And the Gentiles were grafted in to the family of God because they chose to believe. I want to be grafted into the tree of life. I want my dead branches and sin to break off of me and God to plant me on His tree of life. If God is our foundation He holds us to and is strong supporting us. One thing that is cool about this illustration he uses is that they usually graft fruit trees. As christians we are supposed to produce fruit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control) We cannot do this in on our own. It takes the power of our creator to work in and through us and to be the source of our life for this to be possible. 

    It is awesome if you have grown up in a christian family, going to church and such. But just because those are your roots doesn't mean you are necessarily saved. We must each individually decide to put our life in Jesus' hands and believe that he died for us to have eternal life. I don't want to be broken off because of my unbelief, but I want to chose to have a relationship with Jesus and dedicate my life to that. 

    I encourage you to read this verse several times, and study it and see what God is showing you. Are you grafted into Him. Are you saved because of your belief! I want everyone who reads this to have security that they will spend eternity with their creator.

prayer:

Jesus, thank you for who you are. I am so grateful for what you do in my life. You are so awesome that when we believe you attach us to you so we can grow and produce the fruits you want us to have in our lives. We praise you forever.

Amen.

Random thoughts from God

So I'm at the park with my girls now. We just had a picnic...it's such a beautiful day out sunny, but not too hot! As we're playing l see God showing me this picture. Stella is a pretty good walker now. She wants to be so independent. Wants to walk around the park all by herself! She refuses to hold my hand at times, insisting she can do it herself. Then when she gets to the tall stairs or slide she looks back and up and me and reaches for my hand. She needs me more when it gets tough. Aren't we all guilty of having this type of relationship with God. We can do it all by ourselves, we know what we're doing right? Then the minute things go wrong, where are you God? I need you!? Our relationship with Him is not meant to be tight in hard times and nonexistent in "easy" times. God loves us, He loves you. He wants to know you and "hold you hand" daily. He smiles when we rely on him no matter the circumstance because we need Him. Whether we're having a joyful or struggling depression, we need God. He is my source of life and the more time I spend with Him, the more I get to know Him. I just can't get enough of Him. 

Psalm 18:2

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Prayer:

Thank you God for revealing yourself to me. Let me put into action trusting and relying on you. I need you no matter the circumstance. Thank you for never leaving or forsaking me.

Amen!!!

prayer

One thing I'm really working on in my spiritual life is prayer. I enjoy studying the bible and reading books, but one thing I have lacked in is prayer. Daily prayer. I think prayer is so important in our walk with God. For some people praying out loud is difficult, but I first challenge you to focus on praying personally to Jesus daily. The more you pray, the more you will feel connected and comfortable. Once you pray out loud for the first time its done! You've done it, whether it was easy or not you made the step of faith and your Father is proud! From now on it isn't a burden, but a part of life. I am really working on setting aside time each day to pray one on one with God. He loves it when we talk to Him. Communication is so important in any relationship and it's no different when it comes to God. One thing that has helped me with prayer is having a topic to pray about and writing it down. I don't always pray like this, but usually once a day I try to sit down and write out a pray for a specific situation in my life or someone else's. This helps me focus because when I sit to pray sometimes my mind wonders and I don't feel like I am staying on task. Everyone has a different prayer style that works for them. I just share mine in case that helps you :) I'm starting to pray for bigger things, I don't to just want to pray for my personal life, I want to pray for others that I don't even know! Here are some prayer topics to help you start thinking outside our normal boxes of prayers.

1. Prayer for interpretation of scripture.
    When we pray for this we can invite the Holy Spirit to direct us as we read, that God will show us the scripture how he intended us to and reveal more to us every time we read it. God is so much more than we will ever grasp, that's no excuse to stop seeking Him, but don't limit Him to what you can learn about Him from reading a scripture once.

2. Prayer to love the people He's placed in our lives
    Sometimes it is hard to love the people around us, we have been hurt or wounded, or just don't like the attitude they may have. Jesus wants us to love above all else. Others should be able to see Jesus inside of us by the way we love. It is good to pray for His love to flow through us as we encounter the people Jesus has placed in our lives.

3. Prayer for us hear from Him and act accordingly
    I don't know about you but I want to hear from God, whether that be from my pastor, my bible, my husband, or a random stranger. Not only do I want to hear from Him, but I want to follow Him. We are not following Jesus if we are hearing truth and not applying it to our lives. We all may lack at times that is why we need to pray for a passion that when we hear the truth we act on it.

4. Prayer for fear to be replaced with the truth.
    When we get saved we need to renew our minds! Our minds are full of satan's lies and Him trying to deceive us. All of these lies place fear in our lives. In order to crush fear we need to soak in Jesus' love and truth.

5. Prayer to be a light
    Praying to be a light is awesome. We carry the power and presence of God everywhere we go! I want to ask God to help me shine so bright that I am continually pointing people to Him.

6. Prayer for whoever God has placed on our hearts that day.
    I love when I pray for others and can see God working in and through them! God is so good :)

These are just some ideas, as you read them the Lord may show you what he wants you to pray for.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 
Pray without ceasing

Gifts and talents

Jesus gives each one of us spiritual gifts and talents. The more you press into Him the more you discover and learn about them as He reveals himself. Our spiritual gifts and talents are given to us to be used to glorify God. It may be frightening if you find out you have the gift of tongues or prophecy, but the last thing God wants us to do is hear from Him and keep it to ourselves. When we obey Christ it comes with a boldness and an attitude that shows we care more about what He thinks of us than the world. I have had someone come up to me who received a word of knowledge about me from Jesus. It was the coolest thing hearing what Jesus thought about me and they revealed that to this person! I couldn't stop thinking about it and thanking God because it was so special. I'm sure it took a LOT of courage and boldness for this person to come up to me because she didn't even know me. She was risking if I would think she was crazy or not, but ya know what she didn't care if I thought that, she cared what Jesus thought, and He wanted her to come speak to me. And was I glad she did, at the time I needed desperately to hear from Him. Jesus likes to talk in parables and one of His parables is about us taking what He gives us and giving and sharing and USING all for his glory!!! It upsets him when we have a gift and were hiding it, because of fear. If this is you I don't want you to feel guilty, I want to challenge you to really listen for Him this week and USE what he is giving you, whatever that may be.

Matthew 25:14

Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with two talents gained two more. But the man who received one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his money. After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five, 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in change of many things. Come and share your master's happiness! "The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you have entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talents in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. "'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

This verse is symbolizing Jesus leaving for a long time and what are we gonna do when he is gone? Are we gonna take what he gives us and use it for his glory to be multiplied or bury it in ourselves not to be used? Really everything thing we have is God's our money, talents, gifts, we are not owners, but caretakers. He wants us to take what He has given us and obey Him willingly. I don't know about you, but I want to step out in faith and do what He asks of me. It makes Him happy and who doesn't want to see that! :) I want to live different today than yesterday as the fruit of the Spirit and my gifts grow more in me and Christ is magnified. 

prayer:

Lord, thank you for everything that you have given to me and let me be care-giver of. Show me what you want me to do with what you've given me. Let my gifts never go wasted, and let me be the vessel for you Jesus. I want to be your good and faithful servant. In your name we pray.

Amen.

What does it mean to believe and what does it look like?

What does it mean to actually believe in Jesus? Do you believe that Jesus existed? Do you believe He died and rose again? Did you repeat a prayer after someone? Do you believe he died on the cross a horrible painful death for your sins, so you can have an eternity with Jesus in heaven and live out the everyday showing others Jesus? It does say in the bible in Romans that whoever confesses with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For some of you you read this and say yes I can full confidence that I am saved. Others may say, I repeated a prayer on time but NOT ONE THING has changed in my life after that. I encourage you to think about that. The bible says For it is with your heart that you believe. So do you believe in your heart?

Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

So when your saved people should be able to tell! Your life should look different! As a Christian were told NOT to look like the world. In the bible they refer to satan as ruler of the world. Why would someone who is saved by Jesus want to look like the product of something that satan rules over! NOT ME! I understand this is hard, it really is, but once you get that fire and deep passion you want to be different, you know God smiles upon different, and you want others to be that way too. Let's step out if faith. People go to church, say they believe, listen to the message, but change absolutely nothing else in their lives. The bible says

James 1:22-25
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what is says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what is says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forget what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.

We are all guilty at some point for hearing and not doing, but lets change this. Let's open our hearts and minds for Jesus to transform us! Let's make sure when we confess JESUS IS LORD and believe it in our hearts that we repent and let God penetrate every area of our lives to reflect Him. I want to know when I get to the pearly gates Jesus KNOWS ME! That he doesn't know of me, but knows me by the personal relationship I seek to have with him DAILY! One thing the bible talks about when you receive Jesus you receive the Spirit (Holy Spirit) (Acts 2:38) So now that your saved and have this relationship with Jesus, he sends his spirit to be with you, the bible refers to the Holy Spirit as the Counselor, our Advocate ( someone who supports). When we receive the Holy Spirit things should really start to change in our lives. When we live in the power of the Spirit things should look more supernatural than natural in our lives. We are not living to what God called us to be if you can explain everything that happens in our lives, apart from the work of the Spirit. In this book I'm reading called Forgotten God, Francis Chan uses a really cool description of the Spirit I want to share. He says image a caterpillar that all its life has crawled on the ground and eaten leaves, then one day takes a nap, a long nap, and wakes up and says WOW I've got these beautiful wings and I can fly. That is how much our life should change when we encounter Jesus and Holy Spirit. We shouldn't be crawling anymore because we have this awesome potentinal now that completely changes who we are. Our old selves have died, we are a new creation in Christ. I want others to be able to tell that from spending time with me. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Acts 4:13
When the men saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

We should want others to see that we spend time with Jesus and his spirit is on us. Stop and think of the first person who comes to mind when you like Spirit-filled. Aren't they just fun to be around? Don't they carry this light and joy with them? We can have it too, its not their light anyway its Jesus'!!!!

2 Corinthians 2:4
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

prayer: Jesus, you are so good! Holy Spirit come and enter every area of our lives. Let whatever we say and do be led by You. Let others see Your glory by how we live our lives. Let it be a reflection of who you are and the power of Your Spirit.
Amen.